Vindication
by sparklehunter
Summary: Complete! Vengeance is the art of hate. Hate is the art of destruction. Iruka doesn't know how to let go. Sequel to Breaking Symphonies. Light Kakairu. Part 3, 'Interlude,' uploaded.
1. Underestimated

Title: Vindication

Author: Sparklehunter

Summary:

Part: 1/3 (?)

Author's Note: Number eleven, part one in a series of snapshots about the aftermath of an almost-death. Sequel to Breaking Symphonies/Edged in Silver.

Author's Note: Originally, this was the first of three parts. Unfortunatley, this one doesn't cover as much as I wanted it to -- but the extended ending didn't sound right, so this is the cut version. The extended scenes should show up in 'Here,' (title tentative), which I'm working on as soon as I finish uploading this. I promise.

Author's Note: I'm _so_ sorry to anyone who was waiting for this; real life caught up with me (with a vengeance). This one goes to Zeldafitz, for reminding me this was on my harddrive. Somewhere. So, without further ado:

**Vindicatiom**

Underestimated

by sparklehunter

_"You underestimated me, you fucking bastard."_

During the 19 years Iruka has been a ninja, he has spent 7 in training, 8 teaching, and 4 as an active Shinobi. Naruto has been in his life for 16 years. Kakashi has been a friend for 7 years, a lover for 4 years. His parents have been dead for 21 years. He has spent 15 months paralyzed from the waist down. He has spent 2 months as a prisoner of war.

He has spent 3 days curled in Saburo's arms, biting through his lip and everything he knows and guesses about state secrets and what military plans and actions. He has spent 3 days with fire in his thighs and ice in his calves. He spent 3 days out of his head with pain and fear and grief and the knowledge of total failure. He spent 3 days in the closest thing to comfort he's experienced since Kakashi left for war.

He's wasted 3 days in (Saburo) blind stupidity.

Iruka licks his lips, tastes blood that, for the first time in months, isn't his own, and snickers. His legs hurt, but they're hurting. He can feel them, move them, walk upright. Iruka thinks he is damaging the muscles, using them after so many months, but he doesn't care.

_"You underestimated me, you fucking bastard."_

Iruka grins. The body hits the floor, another breadcrumb tracing his path to freedom. Around him, there is shouting and flashing lights and noise. Beside him, Isas makes a small sound. Iruka grins again.

"I'm going," he says, "to take you with me, to the edge. And then I'm going to cut your hands off. And then I'm going to leave you, there, so your assistants can stop the bleeding and keep you alive. And I'm going to go to sleep every night, thinking about how you'll never save someone's life again."

Isas stumbles as they duck through another door. "You're crazy," he says.

The medical-nin says the words like they should mean something. Iruka thinks that he'll think about that later. When he's safe.

Iruka's pretty sure he'll never think about it.

He has the flat of the knife in his left hand resting against Isas's carotid artery. His right hand alternates between Isas's shoulder and the throwing knives he's been stealing from the Shinobi he kills as he leaves. The level of ineptitude among the dead guards surprises Iruka. He's confident that they (SaburoSaburoSaburo) don't expect this, can't expect this, never expects a paralyzed nin, not -

Isas looks at him. Iruka memorizes his eyes: yellow-brown, with a dark gray ring around the outside and a light gray ring almost swallowed by his pupil. There is a little fear, a little horror, and a lot of pain in the hazel. Iruka feels better knowing he put it there.

Iruka kills, again.

_"You underestimated me, you fucking bastard," _he says.

TBC in 'Here'

Review, please.


	2. Like This

Title: Vindication

Author: Sparklehunter

Summary: Vengeance is the art of hate. Hate is the art of destruction. Iruka doesn't know how to let go.

Part: 2/4 (?)

Author's Note: Number eleven, part two in a series of snapshots about the aftermath of an almost-death. Sequel to Breaking Symphonies/Underestimated.

Author's Note: Sorry for the mix-up -- accidently uploaded Ways to Die, instead of this. Hmm, s'what I get for rushing before class.

**Vindicatiom**

Like This

by sparklehunter

_It goes like this:_

Iruka drops Isas where he stands. Isas crumples. His hands have been hacked at the wrists - they're still attached to his arms, but only by skin and muscle. Isas stares at his fingers and palms, trembling, hurt, it hurts, and tries to pull his limbs close. Instead, he collapses unconscious.

Iruka doesn't notice. He's found the door, one he saw months ago, one he used to get into this hellhole called a prison. Chakra keys are needed to open the door from the inside. It's a safety procedure Iruka would approve of, in Konoha. Here, he feels fury ride his veins as he stalks and staggers to the door, and uses Isas' blood to implode the wood. The markings glimmer and darken, look both wet and dry, seem red and brown, as the wood splinters and shudders. Maybe it's his anger, maybe it's his hate, maybe it's his pain, but Iruka can feel the wood wrenching, can feel the power of the jutsu, and it makes him smile.

Outside the door, it is twilight. Iruka approves. His coloring is made for night and shadows, all dark skin and eyes, unlike Sa - Ka - NarutoNarutoblondNaruto. He chokes on a sob as he stumbles past the threshold. His skin, newly healed of cuts and scrapes and slashes and burns, is hot against the cool air, but that could be the blood covering him. Iruka takes a moment to scan the area. He already knows where to go - the same route Naruto took, the path he memorized so long ago, a road to freedom that does not exist.

Iruka doesn't know if he can run that far. Iruka doesn't know if he can run.

But dying is better than staying.

_It goes like this:_

There is a fence around the prison. It is made of wire, and set with jutsus. Iruka plans not to touch the wire, to avoid the barbs and spells that could be so devastating. He already knows it will be hard; the wire is difficult to see at night, he isn't used to distance vision, his night vision is in shambles after months of torture. He knows it will be harder because of the figure pacing in front of the fence.

All the poetic irony in the world dictates Saburo should be the one to stop him. He even wishes it were Saburo standing before him, but there's half of him that wants to kill and kill and bleed Saburo until there's nothing left of the man. Iruka doesn't think about the other half.

Saburo is away from the prison, though. Iruka knows this, that is why he has seized this opportunity of surprise and timing and madness.

And life is not poetry, so Goro is standing, all five foot two inches of scar tissue and no apparent weapons, before the fence Iruka must cross.

_It goes like this:_

Iruka moves first, because he can't give the prison guards a chance to come support Goro. He can't give Shiro a chance to help his brother. He can't stand another moment waiting, rotting in this hell of his own flesh and blood. He's spent months in chairs, on the floor. He spends the next moments moving swift and silent toward Goro.

There are nin that use words while fighting, use language to infuriate their opponents and trick them into giving something away or making a mistake. Iruka is not one of them. He once told Ibiki (half-drunk, because that is the only way to talk to Ibiki) that he only has nightmares about the people he kills if he talks to them. Goro and Iruka fight in silence. Iruka hopes this bit of history holds true.

Goro is scarred from his battles, which indicates, Iruka knows, extreme skill or extreme ineptitude. As they fight, Iruka decides Goro is more than competent, but has an odd habit of leaving his left side unprotected. Iruka is tired and sore, running on terror and a fury so powerful it conquered the atrophied muscles of his body and gave him strength, but he taught children to take advantage of such an elementary mistake for eight years.

The blood makes the blade too slippery to hold, so he leaves it buried in Goro, slides his hand out from the lungs and intestines and other organs he pushed aside to find the heart, and moves away from Goro's spasming body.

_It goes like this:_

Umino Iruka kills 13 escaping the prison. Shiro is the one who finds Goro's body. No one knows anything beyond that.

TBC in 'Unentitled.' Which is a completely tentative title. Also, review, please!


	3. Interlude

Title: Vindication

Author: Sparklehunter

Summary: Vengeance is the art of hate. Hate is the art of destruction. Iruka doesn't know how to let go.

Part: 3/3

Author's Note: Number eleven, part three in a series of snapshots about the aftermath of an almost-death. Sequel to Breaking Symphonies/Like This.

Author's Note II: I'm sorry. Very sorry. Watch me grovel. (grovels)

Author's Note III: there are a few people who encouraged me not to drop this, and the reviews almost always made me go work on this. You should know who you are. It took a while, but this is for you.

**Vindicatiom**

Interlude

by sparklehunter

Umino Iruka has been running for a long time.

A long time ago, in a village far, far away. . . .

He said, "Sensei, get drunk with me."

" . . . That sounded a bit too much like a pick-up-line," Iruka replied.

He said, "So, Naruto's –"

"I don't want to talk about it," Iruka replied.

He said, "if I were gonna torture you."

"You're a handful drunk, aren't you?" Iruka replied.

He said, "I think we need to talk."

"Not without alcohol," Iruka replied.

He said, "Just what do you think you're doing?"

"Fuck you," Iruka replied.

He said, "Hokage said to talk."

"So talk," Iruka replied.

He said, "Have you seen Kakashi?"

"No," Iruka replied.

He said, "Someone recommended you."

"That isn't exactly what I wanted to hear," Iruka replied.

He said, "Can I have my flask back?"

"I'll mail it to you," Iruka replied.

He said, "You'll get him killed, someday."

"No, I won't," Iruka replied.

There are trees, and there is grass, and there are rivers. Iruka does not pay attention to the land. He is tired, and ill, and held together by the skill of a man he left for dead. He is also bloody, but any predators around let him alone.

He needs to get home, Iruka thinks. He needs to get home, to tell someone - something. In his mind, there are two images – or maybe three. One is a blond who was a boy and is now a man. The other is either masked, with one blue eye and one red, or long haired with one blue eye and one hazel brown, or perhaps both. Truth told, Iruka does not know which images are safe. He has been alone, and in pain, for a very long time. His dilemma is this: trust all, or trust neither. For him, at that moment, he cannot find a middle ground.

(he has not stopped for food, or drink, or sleep. he can hear people following him if he pays attention, but that might be the paranoia.)

In his mind, someone leans heavy on his shoulder and mumbles against his ear.

He hears, "You can't trust anyone. Even, especially, yourself," and the word 'torture' echoes in his mind.

Iruka has not trusted for 15 months. He is paranoid about people following him. He is running, fast and strong and stumbling.

Iruka doesn't have the energy to be suspicious of anything beyond the space behind him.

Eventually, Morino Ibiki almost stumbles over a mess of dirt and flesh.

He said, "Oh my god."

Iruka, comatose on the grass and dirt, said nothing at all.

The End

TBC in 'Ghosts,' with part 1, ' Haunt,' sometime within the next six months. No, really.


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